National Language Quotes

• A national language is a band of national union.

  Noah Webster

  Band, Unions, Language

  Noah Webster (1951). “Dissertations on the English Language”

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• National languages are all huge systems of vested interests which sullenly resist critical inquiry.

  Edward Sapir

  Inquiry, Language, Interest

  Edward Sapir, David Goodman Mandelbaum (1985). “Selected Writings of Edward Sapir in Language, Culture and Personality”, p.118, Univ of California Press

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• The basis of any independent government is a national language, and we can no longer continue aping our former colonizers ... those who feel they cannot do without English can as well pack up and go.

  Jomo Kenyatta

  Independent, Government, Language

  "English as a Global Language" David Crystal, Cambridge University Press, (p. 124), 2003.

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• Welsh is now almost a national language in Wales. The Scottish dialects are reviving to some extent. I don't think it's a major thing, but it's there, and it's happening elsewhere.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Dialect, Language

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

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• English is a second language in most of the educated sectors of Europe and much of the world. But maybe in the future Chinese will be. But I doubt that national languages will disappear. In fact, to some extent they're becoming more diverse, like in Europe.

  Noam Chomsky

  Europe, Doubt, Chinese

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

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• Central Europe is full of little countries standing shoulder to shoulder with no window to the sea. They are like the passengers in a rush-hour train which has stopped between stations for three centuries. And they all hate one another. And they're all crushed together waving their national flags, clanking their national chains, jabbering their national language.

  Quentin Crisp

  Country, Hate, Europe

  Source: davidbenson.webs.com

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• One of my favorite literary theorists, Mikhail Bakhtin, wrote that the defining characteristic of the novel is its unprecedented level of "heteroglossia" - the way it brings together so many different registers of language. He doesn't mean national languages, but rather the sublanguages we all navigate between every day: high language, low language, everything. I think there's something really powerful about the idea of the novel as a space that can bring all these languages together - not just aggregate them, like the Internet is so good at doing, but bring them into a dialogue.

  Elif Batuman

  Powerful, Mean, Thinking

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Bad English was the second language of Israel and bad Hebrew, of course, remained the national language.

  George Mikes

  Funny, Humorous, Israel

  George Mikes (1969). “The Prophet Motive: Israel Today and Tomorrow”

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• Is calling English our national language racist? Are we at that point?

  Tucker Carlson

  Racist, Calling, Language

  "The Situation" with Tucker Carlson, www.nbcnews.com. May 19, 2006.

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• These examples of the lack of simplicity in English and French, all appearances to the contrary, could be multiplied almost without limit and apply to all national languages.

  Edward Sapir

  Simplicity, Limits, Example

  Edward Sapir, David Goodman Mandelbaum (1985). “Selected Writings of Edward Sapir in Language, Culture and Personality”, p.117, Univ of California Press

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• They (Americans) have their national game, baseball - which is cricket played with a strong American accent - and they have a national language, entirely their own, unlike any other language spoken on the earth.

  George Mikes

  Funny, Baseball, Strong

  George Mikes (1959). “How to scrape skies: the United States explored, rediscovered and explained”

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• No important national language, at least in the Occidental world, has complete regularity of grammatical structure, nor is there a single logical category which is adequately and consistently handled in terms of linguistic symbolism.

  Edward Sapir

  Symbolism, Important, World

  Edward Sapir, Pierre Swiggers (2008). “General Linguistics”, p.281, Walter de Gruyter

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• As a matter of fact, a national language which spreads beyond its own confines very quickly loses much of its original richness of content and is in no better case than a constructed language.

  Edward Sapir

  Matter, Facts, Language

  Edward Sapir, Pierre Swiggers (2008). “General Linguistics”, p.281, Walter de Gruyter

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• I doubt that national languages will disappear. In fact, to some extent they're becoming more diverse, like in Europe.

  Noam Chomsky

  Europe, Doubt, Facts

  "The Secret of Noam: A Chomsky Interview". Interview with Jeff Jetton and Dakota Fine, chomsky.info. March 9, 2011.

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